Mock Tudor

CD REVIEWS - NEW RELEASES

August 26, 1999|By ROGER CATLIN

MOCK TUDOR

Richard Thompson

Capitol Records

In his first full band record in three years, the prolific and top-flight Richard Thompson gets a stark, smooth production from new producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schanpf, who were behind albums by Beck, Elliott Smith and Foo Fighters.

It's not as if Thompson, at 50, is trying to put on more fashionable clothes. For more than 30 years, Thompson has found a way to make everything he plays and sings sound fresh and unique.

With a rollicking band that includes bassist Danny Thompson, and Richard Thompson's son Teddy and Mitchell Froom, producer of his past couple of records, on occasional keyboards, ``Mock Tudor'' offers a splendid collection of songs, roughly based on observations on the London suburbs. With a simpler approach, the songs are catchier and leave room for his complex and unexpected guitar solos.

Although he's not trying overtly to turn out hits, songs like ``Two-Faced Love'' are not unlike ``Tear Stained Letter,'' which came as close as anything to being a well-known song by Thompson. ``Hard on Me'' is full of rock majesty, with equal parts drive and grace. ``Sights and Sounds of London Town'' reflects his more folkier acoustic side.

Although it seemed that earlier this decade Thompson despaired at the lack of commercial success, he seems to have left those worries behind him, and just made the best kind of album he knows how.